In the connector industry, often times shear bolts and screws are used to serve the dual function of securing a wire in a connector and providing a screw that will break off at some position above the connector housing. There are two disadvantages to current designs of these shear bolts and screws. The first disadvantage is that they are expensive to manufacture or require special tools to use. The second disadvantage is that the screw or bolt length is fixed, which prevents these types of screws or bolts from being used in medium voltage connectors which require the screw to break at or below the surface of the connector. The two greatest functions needed of these types of bolts or screws are that they should allow only the required force applied to the conductor within the connector and that the excess screw length should be broken off at or below the surface of the connector body. Unfortunately, current designs do not meet both of these needs without the use of multiple break points on the screw or bolt body or without the use of special tools to achieve these functions.